Director Martin Scorsese's "savage, many-headed dragon of the American New Wave" (Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice) is still as potent as ever. Cabbie Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro's seminal pistol-packing, insomniac loner) drives through the open sewer that is mid-1970s Manhattan with its pimps (Harvey Keitel), hookers (Jodie Foster), politicos (Cybill Shepherd and Albert Brooks) and other scummy creatures of the neon wilderness. With a ferocious script by Paul Schrader.

Minnie Moore is a museum curator whose married boyfriend does little for her self-esteem. Enter parking-lot attendant Seymour Moskowitz, who tells Minnie, “I think about you so much, I forget to go to the bathroom!” As mismatched as the title couple may seem, Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel make these wounded but hopeful souls entirely real. While Cassavetes remains conscious of the disconnect between movie-inspired romantic ideals and real-life relationships, he gives an early-’70s New Hollywood spin to the screwball comedy here.